Guns 'n Numbers
by Naheniel
Summary: Nell starts working on a PhD at CalSci as a cover job to please her family. When she is roped into FBI-cases she has to find a balance between what she has learned as an agent and how people expect a geeky mathematician to behave when confronted with crimes.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I stumbled across this idea when I started waching Numb3rs, as I was an NCIS:LA fan before.**

 **Please take note that I will adapt a few facts of both shows a bit to make this Cross-Over work, so if you see any variations from Canon this may very well be the reason.**

 **This starts a little after a year after Nell has started at NCIS, Owen Granger is already working there as well. Nell has the active field status. So we would be roughly Season 3 of NCIS:LA. In my story Nell is 22, and went to College as a teenager being placed into analyst-training after this. Nell went to Princeton although she was older than Charlie, but in the show she says she's got a high IQ so I chose to reflect this. I think she would have combined maths with computer science, Spanish possibly as an addition to supplement her scientific coursework.**

 **We move around Season 2 in Numb3rs at the same time, so Charlie is roughly 29. His clash with Amita already happened and as opposed to the series she actually accepted the position in Harvard.**

 **Basic idea is that Nell is starting to work on her PhD, because she thinks it is a coverjob that would make her family proud of her.**

* * *

With a happy sigh, Nell looked around in her new office. She had met her thesis-adivsor, Professor Flynn, an hour ago and now she had finished putting up all her things in her new office at CalSci: Well mostly a few books a blackboard that she had placed on hooks in the wall and her NCIS-approved 'out-of-office'-laptop. She had taken pains to make sure that nothing would trace back to the mission, she had her blackberry on her person and another laptop in her go bag for that, which was now stored in a lockable drawer on the old-fashioned wooden desk.

Luckily she would be here under her real name so no weird under cover stuff she had to remember for this assignment. But Hetty had suggested for her to work on a PhD to please her parents, after all they couldn't understand how their brilliant daughter, who had graduated from Princeton at 19, studying maths and computer science, could end up as an editor for a news-channel. So Nell had claimed that this 'self-finding' phase was now over and that she would put some serious efforts in her maths.

This endeavor would placate her parents for a couple of years, and even if they caught a case, Nell could concentrate on those, blaming irregular working hours for any longer periodes of absence in the office. Despite the excitiment coming with a job at the mission, they didn't really catch any cases more often than once or twice a month. The rest of the time individual members of the team spent time recuperating from various bruises or other injuries, practicing hand to hand combat or their shooting skills. And she could schedule the sparring with Sam and the shooting training with Kensi around any office hours she would have. Aside of those rather offensive skills, Hetty had always incouraged them to learn languages, so Nell had dutifully taken a copy of "Анна Каренина" by Лев Николаевич Толсто́й, Callen had given that to her when she had asked him for lessons in Russian, and placed it into the shelf with the other books.

They had a good support crew in OPs anyway, so she could oversee this from here as well, once she installed a safe line 'home'. Meanwhile the OPs support staff swiped the intel for any things to be reviewed by Nell and Eric. And if anything urgent happened, she could come over.

After a last glance through her office, Nell closed the door and went into the deserted hallway. Apparently most other people had already gone home, but across the hall there was one door that was still open so she went over, and peeked inside. It was probably the most cliché proffessor's office she had ever seen and most likely Hetty would have skinned her alive if any of her agents had taken anything work related to such a chaotic place. However the inhabitant, a man, maybe a bit older than herself, with curly hair and clad in rather plain washed jeans and a faded grey shirt, didn't seem to mind as he was immersed into the writing on his blackboard.

Nell knocked on the doorframe and smiled, when the man nearly jumped and turned around to her. He looked nice enough, and certainly not an eyesore even if he wasn't as athletic as most of the OSP-Agents, but then that was OSP where even the support crew had regular training scheduled, Hetty and Granger always insisted on every employee being trained in security measures and basic self defense. Not to mention the training the agents got, and Nell as well since she had aqquired her active field status.

"Hi!" she said, coming closer.

Meanwhile Charlie had recovered from being startled, he took in the stranger's appearance, small, redhead with a dark blue dress and lighter blue jeans jacket. She could have been one of his students but he couldn't really place her, unil he remembered Alexis harping on about her new PhD-student who was some level of brilliant. But after a couple of minutes worth of praises about this new wonder kid that might even outsmart the famous Charlie Eppes, he had zoned out of the conversation and went back to his work.

"Uhm hi," Charlie replied with a kind smile. There was no need to brush her off now and the girl actually seemed quite nice, so he added "Can I help you?"

"No, I just wanted to introduce myself, but everyone else apparently already went home. I'm Nell Jones.", she replied.

"You're Dr. Eppes right? This looks interesting, point of origin analysis!", she continued cheerfully and looked at the board behind Charlie. She had already worked on those to track down terrorists at the NCIS so the equations seemed familiar. She knew that Charlie worked with his FBI-brother on cases, even though this was 'just' a cover job she had inspected what felt like every nook and cranny of CalSci including all the people she would deal with.

"It's for the FBI, yeah", Charlie replied and came to halt next to Nell.

"I heard about that.", the younger woman replied and smiled up at him, before she continued "I haven't seen this equation with more than one orginating point yet though. Usually one's enough."

"Mostly, but the FBI didn't come up with a suspect in the first hotzone so we tried to see if there is another one, like home and workplace for instance. It's not done yet, though. Want to work with me on this? Most people just call me Charlie by the way", he asked out of an impulse. He had rather enjoyed bouncing ideas with Amita or Larry but since Amita went to Harvard, and Larry being busy with with his most recent project, he worked alone on Don's cases most of the times.

"Sure!" Nell replied and studied Charlie's work carefully. His equations were amazing, she couldn't do much than run them through with him, so she plucked his laptop off the desk and started plotting the data Charlie gave her into a map. Working with the computer was something he had always disliked, preferring some solid ground to write on, but Nell seemed very much at home working with his laptop, so he just let her.

"Have you ever worked with data like this?", he asked. She was really fast with this, much faster and more efficient than he could be, so he just stood next to where she had sat on his desk and watched over her shoulder.

"Not exactly, but something similar," Nell replied trying to evade the question a little. She could hardly tell Charlie that she occasionally used them to track down terrorists in hiding. That would probably not go over too well despite him having a pretty high security clearance. Enough to know about OSP, but Hetty was against outside consultants, preferring to hire her own brilliant minds. And Charlie would probably not actually go looking for them out of the blue, so she was most likely safe for now.

While the two mathematicians were working, Charlie mostly giving Nell the data for the map, Don had come over to CalSci to collect the data. Charlie had texted him earlier saying that 'they' were almost done and would come over soon, which had him curious. Since the fiasco with Amita, Charlie had worked only with Larry and Don knew the physicist was not in LA at the moment. As they had no new lead and were waiting on the data from Charlie he had decided to drive over and fetch those and his kid brother himself, all the same wanting to find out who Charlie was working with.

Don contemplated to knock at the door but ultimatively decided against it and peeked inside Charlie's office. It yielded the usual chaos, books and papers strewn over the floor. But there was Charlie and working with a woman, cute redhead, a couple of years younger than himself. They seemed to get along pretty well, much like Charlie had done with Amita. Like back then, the girl was working on the laptop with his brother hovering next to her. But she seemed to have a much better awareness of her surroundings than all the other people around here: Almost the moment he peeked around the corner, he could read in her body language that she was aware of the fact she was watched, even though she didn't react. That was pretty remarkable, most of the scientists here were usually so absorbed in what they were doing that they completely forgot about what was going on around them. This girl didn't only seem to be able to follow Charlie's directions without any problems, but also payed attention to him snooping into the office!

With a knock on the door frame he made his presance known to his brother as well.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I'm happy that is idea is well recieved. I think Nell and Charlie would go together quite nicely. I'm surprised I haven't seen it yet actually, but then again not so many NCISlers focus on Nell.**

* * *

Charlie's and Nell's reaction to his knocking on the doorframe cemented Don'd suspicions. Nell had known he was there, opposed to Charlie. For now he shrugged this off however, Nell being more aware of her surroundings than the average genius walking around here was no really saying anything.

"Hey Chuck, how's it going? Got the data for me?", Don asked and came closer. With a smirk he noticed how Charlie winced at his use of the much hated nickname. Sometimes Charlie was so predictable! More interesting was that Charlie seemed to move away a step or two from the girl when Don came closer. So wether he meant it or not, Charlie reacted to her. So Don decided not to pick on him infront of the girl.

"Hey Don, yes we were just finishing the map for you guys." Charlie replied and gestured slightly in the general direction of the printer, which sprang to life a couple of moments later and started spitting out paper. Meanwhile Don turned to Nell.

"You one of Charlie's students?", he asked, eying her closely. She seemed younger even than Amita, Don estimated her at not much more than 20 or 21. But he and Amita had used cases as a study for some of Charlie's students in the past, this would be nothing new, well aside of the fact that Charlie usually gave projects like this to whole groups of students and not one alone.

"PhD from across the hall.", Nell replied and jumped off the desk. She decided that she wouldn't let the FBI-brother play with her countenance and so she just calmly answered his question and went over to the printer to pluck the maps out.

"Aren't you a bit young for that?" Don asked, still watching the girl. So she was not only aware of her surrounding, but she was also composed enough to not react to Don's rather chilled manners. Mostly those scientists had a much higher squim factor than this. Not that this was enough to set off any of his alarms, it was interesting to watch. Assuming Charlie brought this girl into cases more often he would have to know how she reacted around things. Grouchy FBI-agents starting this list.

Charlie cleared his throat when Don started questioning her. Not that he hadn't asked himself this question already but he was starting to feel uncomfortable with the way Don interrogated Nell.

"I finished MIT at 19. Here's the map you wanted." Nell replied with a shrug, before she flashed a smile at Charlie, willing him to understand that his brother wouldn't be successful with intimidating her at this rate. After she saw that Charlie seemed quite relieved, Nell handed Don the pages that she had quickly taped together.

"I think you have more pressing matters to attend to." Nell deadpanned, classic Hetty-style, which made Don look at her again raising his eyebrows, not sure if he should be amused, intrigued or annoyed. Meanwhile Charlie grinned, watching Don's try to establish authority going south very quickly. Normally Don and sometimes even his colleagues had the habit of practically walking over him, Larry and until she left, Amita too. After Nell's exchange with his brother, Charlie was quite sure that Don would at least think twice before attempting this with her.

"Yeah... True." Don replied, after a moment and looked over the map Nell had given him. "You two coming with?", He asked them and tucked the maps into the case file.

Sighing Charlie nodded and looked over to Nell. The younger woman just shrugged before nodding ever so slightly and left the office. When she was gone, Charlie started packing stuff into his backpack, occacionally shooting a glare at Don, who was leaning against the door, waiting.

"I don't think you can order her around like that Don, so better get used to actually ask nicely. She may have agreed to come but I am pretty sure she would have had no qualms to shoot you down." He said, actually quite proud at how Nell had let Don know right away that she was doing _him_ a favor. Not that she was rude but clearly she had impressed Don quite a bit.

"Alright, alright!." Don replied to appease Charlie, before he added with a smirk, that made Charlie's face flushed, "But you should consider asking her out before she's done with her PhD."

Meanwhile Nell had gone over to her office. She didn't really need time to pack, like all of Hetty's agents she always had her go-bag packed, but she needed time to breath. She had played calm with Don, but it wasn't who she really was. She had learned to deal with tough agents, she wouldn't have lasted a day otherwise but that didn't mean she wasn't more skittish than she let on. At the moment it didn't matter though she had time to help the FBI at the moment. Charlie was a nice guy and she wouldn't turn him down if he wanted to work with her. It was fun and she had the chance to learn loads. Smiling, Nell turned around when she heard Charlie coming through the door.

"I'm sorry about Don, to him we're extensions of his team and he's bossy with them. It's his job..." Charlie started, tryng to apologize for Don's slightly rude manners. But Nell gently smiled up at him and shook her head.

"Don't worry Charlie, I won't let him walk all over me.", she replied and squeezed his shoulder before she picked up her backpack and left, Charlie following him.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Again thanks for the great feedback. I would be happy about any and all opnions you might have on my story as it helps me to improve it. Yes I am shamelessly stealing the noodle-scene from the show. I might use other scenes from the original shows as well.  
**

* * *

After Nell had watched Charlie for a while, who was absentmindly cleaning their board at the FBI-Building, the agent went over and gently plucked the sponge from his hands and put it on the table.

"There was nothing we could have done, that anyone could have done to save her Charlie.", Nell said quietly, grabbing his arm, willing the mathematician to comprehend what she was saying. They had done everything they could have possibly done and still they hadn't been in time to save the lastest victim. She had died only hours before Don's team had finally found out where she was being held and it was a severe blow to everyone as the killer had rid himself of the girl earlier than they had assumed he would. And so the whole team, including Charlie and Nell, had gone to the scene with every intention to find a live victim.

Charlie hadn't actually seen anything, Don had not let either him or Nell anywhere near the cellar once it was clear what had happened there earlier, and Nell had to agree that it was probably for the best. All the agents on the scene had already seen bloody corpses but Charlie was no agent. He had been upset enough when he learned that they had come too late.

"I know..." he replied quietly, looking down at her,"thanks Nell."

"You know, I think your brother needs someone to tell him that too.", the agent continued and nodded towards the break room where Don was sitting at the table, staring down morosely. Don felt responsible as team leader, she knew Callen would be off at the gym beating the punching bag to pulp had he been in the same situation.

"Yeah...", Charlie just said and nodded. He studied Nell for a moment, but the younger woman seemed to be OK, upset like everyone else but she had accepted that this was not on them.

"Go, he needs company. I'll be fine on my own, and I'm not in a hurry to get back to CalSci either.", Nell said, urging Charlie to go and talk to his brother. At least Don had someone who could try and talk him out of feeling guilty, unlike Callen. Though Hetty usually tried with him.

Smiling slightly, she watched Charlie go over and chuckled when the two brothers started breaking spaghetti. Well at least they seemed in better spirit. If noodles was what it took, why not! Meanwhile the rest of Don's team started filing out of the office, biding Nell a good night, so she was alone pretty quickly and took out her copy of 'Anna Karenina' and began reading. Unless there was a new case by monday, Callen would ask her about it just to see how much she had understood as the set task had been to read the book without the aid of a dictionary and to use only words that she had learned by heart so far.

A couple of minutes later, Nell heard someone approach from the entrance and looked up from her book to see Alan Eppes standing in the doorway to the bullpen seemingly searching for his sons. She had seen his file of course and so she had recognized the picture, but it would probably be weird if she knew the man without ever having met him so she just smiled at him kindly.

"Hi. Uhm, I'm sorry but it seems everyone else has already left and I'm not an agent." She said and pointed towards her visitor badge, similar to Alan's.

"I was looking for my sons, but it seems they are busy. I'm Alan Eppes, most of Don's colleagues just call me Alan.", the man replied after he had spotted Don and Charlie who were still immersed in their endeavor with the noodles.

"I'm Nell Jones, actually I work at CalSci. I'm a PhD-student. Nice to meet you."

"Aren't you a bit young for that?", Alan asked at her reply and eyed her again. Nope, definitely not older than 25 and probably younger than that!

"Everyone asks me that...", Nell replied chuckling, "but I started MIT as a teenager."

"Alright then! Well actually I was planning on treating these ones to a steak but they seem to prefer shredding noodles. You came here with them didn't you?", Alan asked, and continued when Nell nodded, "it's past 8 already so how about I treat you to dinner. My sons should know where to find us when they get hungry or run out of spaghetti." He would have to talk to his sons about letting women waiting while they were attending to their own business, he mused, breaking spaghetti of all things! At this rate he would never get any grandkids from either of his apparently socially lacking sons.

"It would be a pleasure." Nell replied with a genuine smile and closed the book she had still been holding before packing it carefully in her backpack. When she was done she scribbled a note on the board and turned over to Alan.

"All set.", she said, leaving with the older man.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Again thanks for the great feedback. I would be happy about any and all opnions you might have on my story as it helps me to improve it. Please take note that English is not my first language so if you see any mistakes feel free to point them out to me.  
**

 **Alan is quite happy about Nell, her being the lighthearted girl she can be in the show. Don is not so sure this new friend of Charlie won't walk away like Amita. In this piece she did leave for Harvard because she felt her own work falling off the grid due to Charlie's involvement and increased workload with the FBI, especially if he ropes other people into it. And in my Verse she also didn't want to live in a jobworld full of crime, not that I could blame her, it is not something I would wish for myself either.**

* * *

"Looks like dad is having his fun." Don said when the two brothers entered the Craftsman Home later. Alan was already regaling Nell with some embarassing story from the time when they were kids, so they hurried over.

"Hey dad, Nell." Don said and flopped down across from Nell and Charlie who sat down next to the female agent.

"Boys, how good of you to come, I already thought you had forgotten about dinner." Alan said with a mock-scolding voice. Nell had discreetely let on that their last case had gone south and that the brothers had needed some time to clear their minds. Not that she would have said it so directly but Alan had gotten the general picture and let them be for now. Instead he had taken to question Nell, mostly about school and college after he had found out that she had gone to college early like Charlie. He was not unhappy about the kind PhD-student befriending his son, she had shared some of his experiances going to college as a teenager and seemed much more 'normal' for a lack of a better word. He had seen his brilliant boy being trapped in his head when Margret had died and again when his brother was shot. Amita being mostly a normal girl, had often been able to reach out to Charlie. Unlike Larry who was a lot like his son. Spending time with Nell would hopefully wield the same results as time spent with Amita.

"When did we ever forget steaks?" Don replied with a grin and took a sip of his beer, waiting until Charlie had helped himself to some food before taking some of his own. Dinner went smoothely, Don and Charlie having steered their dad away from stories of their childhood. After a while Alan and Don got up to clear the table, insisting that Nell was a guest and didn't need to help. Charlie had excused himself a couple of minutes earlier. So Nell grabbed Charlie's waterbottle and went outside. He had seen Charlie getting slightly pale over his dinner but also noticed that he had been trying to cover it up, so she went in direction of the trash cans and saw Charlie there throwing up.

"You saw it, didn't you?", Nell said and started rubbing circles over Charlie's back. She contemplated on fetching his father or brother for a moment, but Charlie had come out here because he didn't want them to know.

"Basement window..." Charlie just replied with a rough voice, before he sighed and staggered over to a bench and plopped down, still breathing heavily. Nell followed him and wordlessly sat down next to him, holding the waterbottle to the back of his neck.

After a while Charlie was breathing slower and appeared to feel better, so Nell handed him the water she had brought outside.

"Thanks.", he said and took a sip of the water. Charlie still felt pretty bad but the worst of it was over. He had known that dinner would be a bad idea, but he wanted to convince Don that had was OK, especially as his brother already felt responsible for being to late to save the girl. He had kept Nell and himself far away from the scene once he knew what was in the house, but Charlie had seen most of it through the basement window. When he had thrown up earlier no one had noticed because of the flurry of activity around the scene.

"How can you be so calm about this?" Charlie asked after a few more sips of water, turning to look at her. This had been the first time the younger woman had ben roped into one of Don's cases and she had been as calm as all the other agents on the team, maybe paler than the rest oft them but Charlie had watched her, worried that she couldn't stand working on real cases, and Nell had kept it together remarkebly well. Even Don had noticed earlier when they were playing around with the spaghetti in the breakroom.

While contemplating her answer, Nell abesentmindly reached out and pushed away a damp curl from Charlie's still clammy forehead. She could hardly tell him that this was not even close to some of the horrid things she had seen. Or that it could mean a grisly death in the field if one of the NCIS-Agents lost countenance during an assignment.

"I didn't look down the window, Charlie.", she started quietly, letting her hand sink back to her lap, "And I guess I was just better at telling myself that we did everything we could possibly do to save her. If it helps you: I felt queasy as well when I heard the full story, and you have no idea how relieved I am that I did not look down."

That much was true, while she had seen horrible things at NCIS, she still couldn't help getting sick at exceptionally cruel sights. Especially when she had started at the OSP, she had had this problem. So she could fully understand how Charlie must have felt earlier.

When Nell had ended, Charlie just nodded and finished off his water. It was sort of a relief for him that he had not been the only one affected by the images from the crime scene. Slowly he got up and cautiosly stretched a little, relieved that he was no longer feeling dizzy or nauseaous, and took Nells hand to pull her up.

"I guess we should go back in, the dad and Don will be wondering where we went."

Smiling, Nell just nodded, "I'll cover for you, go get cleaned up."

"Yeah, thank you.", Charlie replied and snuck past the hall into the bathroom while Nell went back to the living room, where Don and Alan had been talking over another beer. Quietly she mumbled an excuse about taking a wrong turn and ending up in the garage which seemed to convince Alan who turned back to the game that was on TV. Meanwhile Don walked over to Nell and started talking quietly.

"Charlie feeling better?", he asked and motioned towards the direction where she had been sitting with the younger man. He had seen Nell leaving the house with the water and had watched her and Charlie through the window. At first he had thought about going outside to help his brother but Nell seemed to have done a good enough job with it. This was alarmingly like Amita would treat Charlie when he had been freaking ot about a case and that had not ended well because Amita had felt Charlie's job and him helping Don had somewhat eaten up her own work. Turned her job into Charlie's something she hadn't wanted, not that Don could blame her for wanting to get out of this life full of criminals.

"Yeah, he's gonna be here in a few minutes.", Nell replied quietly and with a kind smile. She actually thought it was quite adorable how Don looked out for his kid brother, and from the sound of it he had been worried for most of the time since dinner. After a couple of moments she motioned for Don to turn around as she saw Charlie coming back, looking a lot better now.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Again thanks for the great feedback. I would be happy about any and all opnions you might have on my story as it helps me to improve it. Please take note that English is not my first language so if you see any mistakes feel free to point them out to me.  
**

* * *

A couple of evenings later, Charlie walked across the hall to his office to finally grade some papers. He had helped Don on another case, noticing how his brother was sort of hovering, trying to make it seem as if he wasn't treating Charlie any difference. Apparetly he had not been as secretive as he had hoped. But then again even Nell had found him out right away and he had only met her a couple of hours earlier. After the evening she spent with his family, Charlie had only seen her the next morning, when they had talked a bit about her PhD-project and some of the stuff he had been doing for the FBI over tea and coffee. He had enjoyed chatting with her, but then Nell had gotten a visitor, Kenley, Kensi, something like that: a tall woman with strange mismatched eyes, aparently a friend, and the women had left together rather shortly after. Not much later, Don had kept him busy with a new case so that his workload at CalSci now amounted to an alarming size.

Sighing he entered his office and grabbed the pile of papers that were due to be graded in a week. This would take him hours at least so he figured he'd better get started now.

Some time later, Charlie got up and stretched a little, when he heard a pained gasp from across the hall. Quietly he left the office and looked around, but the hall was mostly deserted. Only Nell's door was still open with a soft light shining into the hallway. Quickly Charlie stepped in and saw Nell doubled over with pain, apparently just as she had wanted to clear off her board.

"Nell! What's wrong?", he said and helped her to a chair.

"I'm fine, I'm fine...", Nell replied while making up an excuse for the bruised rib and back not to mention the bruise on her cheek and forehead which Charlie hadn't seen yet since she had been adamantly looking at the floor.

"This didn't look like fine..." Charlie said gesticulating towards her board, his voice a mix of anger at her denial and concern over what the hell was wrong with her. Since Nell had touched him in the yard a few days back he didn't think she would mind it so much herself and he hoped she would tell him the truth facing him directly. Gently he pushed her hair out of her face, palm against her cheek for a couple of moments. He was even more shocked to see the bruises in her face, but his gaze softened when he felt her relaxing against his touch for a couple of moments before she sighed and shook her head.

"Some thugs on the street. Wanting money I guess. It's just a few bruises, nothing that won't go away in a couple of days.", Nell said, lying smoothely. The warmth had actually felt nice, so she had leaned into the touch just the tiniest bit. But Charlie had noticed so she had drawn back, not sure if this was the best of ideas when she had to tell lies to him the next moment. On the other hand there was no way she could possibly tell him, that she had been left a alone with a man who had raped and killed several women while shipped out to Iraq and Afgahnistan, her team only finding out about the truth when they had caught his old CO. By then the guy had known he was alone with Nell and had tried to overpower her. In the end Nell had hurt him pretty badly with the knife she had hidden in her boots, but her opponent had gotten in a couple of pretty hard kicks and punches against her ribs, back and face.

Charlie just nodded, he was still worried about her but he believed her especially as he hadn't seen any type of major injury on her, only bruises like she had said. Slowly he let go of her and straightened up.

"Alright, let me help you clean up.", he said and went over to the board before he continued, "Do you have a ride?"

"I was going to call Kensi and see if she can drive me, I'm not supposed to at the moment. I had no idea anyone was going to be here", Nell replied with a sheepish smile. She had planned on avoiding Charlie and Don at least until she didn't feel like doubling over at every wrong movement but that plan had obviously failed spectacularely.

"Don is going to pick me up soon, he wanted to wrap up his case. We wanted to grab some pizza and watch the game. You'd be welcome of course!", Charlie said when he had finished clearing the board. Nell meanwhile had gotten up and was just packing up the last odds and ends into her go bag. When Charlie offered his invitation she paused to consider it. It would not be the calm Titanic and Rocky Road evening like she was going to have with Kensi, but then again after today she was still hyped up so much that a game and chatting boys would be a nice distraction. Adamantely she told herself that this was actually all the reason and that she would not have turned Eric down had he suggested something similar.

"Sure, sounds fun. I'll just tell Kensi she doesn't have to pick me up.", Nell finally said, flashing Charlie a smile, and fished for her phone to send Kensi a text.

 _'Hey Kens, gonna watch a game tonight, mind if we watch Titanic tomorrow?'_ \- Nell

 _'Game, huh? Wonderboy invited you over? Have fun! Don't do anything I wouldn't do ;) '_ \- Kensi

 _'See you tomorrow Kens, I won't even answer on that!'_ \- Nell

 _'Struck, smitten, whatever. Feels good to be the one saying and not hearing it! :P '_ \- Kensi

With a huff, Nell tossed the phone back into her bag and shook her head.

"All set!", she said turned towards the door, when she heard Don calling for Charlie from the hallway. When she looked back, Charlie had already grabbed her bag, not wanting Nell to carry it.

"We're here, Don", Charlie called back and followed Nell out of the office.


End file.
